You don’t have to be head-over-heels in loooove to get psyched about Valentine’s Day. If you’re a maker, every chance to flaunt your creative chops is a good one. So we’ll let you in on the groovy stuff our designers are making for the Valentine’s Day theme, “Sweethearts,” scheduled to debut in a couple weeks.

First of all, you need to—as in must—check out our Pinterest board to see images that designer Jen Shetterly has pinned from her cruises around the design community. If you’re like most of us, the drool commences by pin #4. PicMonkey’s Sweethearts theme queues off many of the antique-y looks you’ll see on the board. “I want to call up the nostalgia we all have for the valentines we made as kids, so I’m putting a lot of cool vintage stuff in the app. Doilies, antique-y flowers, engraved cupids: great old-school charm” says Jen.

On the modern side, there’ll be a gorgeous one-click effect that dramatically colorizes your photo in a very au courant look (hint: people do it to their hair and it begins with an “o”), and several more moody ones. And bokeh heart lovers, you’ve been heard. We’ll have bokeh hearts! You can also look forward to some fancy new labels; the two-color kind that give you lots of options for graphical treatment (we’ll do a tutorial to show you how). There’ll be tons more, too—including thirty new heart shapes!—so be sure to come back home to find your Sweethearts soon.

Ok… so when do we see this? I haven’t seen any new improvements since I signed up to pay for editing.. ??

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

Hi Charlotte. Hope you noticed Valentine’s Day content is live!

Oren

Cute. But when are you guys releasing info on a discounted yearly rate? I hope you’ve been listening to feedback. I’ve been waiting for some action from PicMonkey to decide whether I’m sticking with you or buying photo editing software.

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

Hi Oren. Hope you noticed the new Yearly plan, for $33 a year.

http://girl-land.com Sarah

I am hooked on PicMonkey! I have Photoshop too, but PicMonkey is quicker and I actually like many of the outcomes better. Any chance you might do any bokeh effects? I like the standard and the heart shape that Picnik used to offer. Thanks, and keep up the great work!

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

Hi Sarah! Glad to hear from you. Yeah, babe we ARE doing a bokeh hearts effect in our “Sweethearts” Valentine’s day content. Look for it next week!

casey

Cool ummmm why are yall charging so much per month !! major let down! that would be $60 a year i can buy my own program for that ! ;(

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

Casey, hoping you saw that we now have an annual plan that works out to $2.75 a month. Thanks for checking in.

vamp1967

Thanks guys for the yearly subscription now $33! I hope when you do the bokeh that we can paint it in!

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

Yes, you will be able to paint it in!

Leo

I have edited photos here for a long time. first time i started when picnik went down. this program is great, i’ve made magic with it! i don’t know for sure if to pay it, or not to. are there any new effects? for the face i mean.

http://PicMonkey.com PicMonkey

We may do more with our Touch Up offerings in the spring. Meanwhile, some people are using a few effects from Halloween to actually enhance facial features. “Dark Shadows” from the Vampires theme can carve out some nice cheekbones!

ness

You say you are doing heart bokeh on the sweethearts content. Excellent, but are you planning on doing other types of bokeh all year round? I loved using it in Picnik and hoped I would see it here too.

Larry

I wish there were video tuts for those of us that are just starting out and want to test some of the features before buying